Case primary details

Fact finding date

Case Incident details

Case summary

On 07/07/2014 around 8 pm, Sanjiv Gandhi (23), s/o Chandrakasu, who was carrying food from Keeripalayam to Vadakku Mangudi, was intercepted at Vadakku Mangudi by caste Hindu Vanniuyar community men namely Ganesha Moorthy, Durai, Prabhakaran and other men. The perpetrators attacked Sanjiv Gandhi with sickles and destroyed the Television Box carried by him and fled the scene. Later Sanjiv Gandhi was rushed to the Chidambaram Kamaraj Government hospital and was receiving medical treatment.

Following this episode, again on 08/07/2014, around 8.30 am Santhosh s/o Ramesh, while he was on his way to the school, at Keelthukudi Valavu road, he was intercepted by Vanniyar community men namely Saravanan, Ayyappan and two other men. They asked which standard he was studying and he replied that he was studying 10^th standard. They ridiculed him commenting about his height, saying very short Paraiyan studying 10^th standard. Santhosh managed to escape from their clutches and started walking towards the school. After a little while, two Vanniyar youths who were wearing mask, carrying iron rods and sickles, again stopped him and torn his uniform shirt with a blade. Santhosh pegged them to leave him, the two perpetrators beaten him with the iron rods on his back. When Santhosh collapsed due to the pain, the perpetrators pierced the pointed part of the sickle on his chest. As the students gathered in that place, the perpetrators ran away from the place of incident.

The students while they were carrying Santhosh to the Dalit residential area, Santhosh mother Aruloli, who was working on the agricultural field along with 7 other women, noticed this and was heartbroken seeing the wound and the condition of her son. As crowd gathered, Aruloli scolded the Vanniyars for this assault. Among the crowd some 10 Vanniyars abused them and attacked Punithavathi w/o Munuswamy on her back head. This incident happened infront of the police personnel who were deployed to provide security for the Dalits in the Vadakku Mangudi village. Santhosh and Punithvathi were taken to the Chidambaram Government Hospital for medical assistance.

Around 11 am, some of the Vanniyar Community men, burnt down Sathosh’s house and another house belongs to a Dalit. These two houses were burnt completely. All their properties and belonging were lost during this arson. The houses were estimated at Rs. 30,000 and cash amount Rs. 6000 and all the utensils were estimated at Rs. 25000. Now Santhosh family is left with nothing to survive. The Dalit people are continue to live in fear even though police personnel were deployed for their security.